Well - I think I have solved my particular problem.
I had been running a time limited trial of ViewFolderSize Pro v5.0 (which had expired).
I thought I might as well uninstall this and magically the regular spikes of system
usage have disappeared.
I am not sufficiently keen to reinstall, register and see if the spikes are still
there but I am sufficiently 'cross' to drop them an email.
Thanks for your interest
KR
R
Uses statistics as others use lamp posts - for support rather than illumination